(Person) Percentage - Sabanci University Research Database

The Asian Media & Mass Communication Conference 2010 Osaka, Japan
During the eleven years from 1988 till 1999, the government switched ten times among the
military, the democratically elected oppositions, and the interims. They include four periods of the
democratic rules, two each by Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif, four interims that followed their
successions and dismissals, and the two military regimes at both ends. However, the 1988 and
1999 reversals between emergency and democracy reflect distinctive developments in the
Pakistani media scene that range from freedom to tremendous expansion of (electronic) media at
the start of the new millennium.
Of the past millennium’s last decade, Ziauddin says, the Press, under Bhutto’s regime,
demonstrated “a remarkable sense of vigor and assertiveness” as she eliminated “the newsprint
quota permit” and governmental control over “newspaper management and editorial policy”
during her first (1988-1991) and second tenure (1993-1996) respectively (2000). These
terminations resulted from the government’s disinvestment of share-holding of the National Press
Trust in English and Urdu dailies, Pakistan Times, Imroz, and Mashriq. These shares were sold to
the private media groups “on the basis of competitive bidding” that ended 36-years of “official
control over a specific set of newspapers” (Ziauddin, 2000). Ironically, the private media groups
bought these papers to monopolize media and trash the competitor, in this case the government, by
gradually cutting and closing down the production and circulation of these papers. The
government gave up the so-called state propaganda in favor of freedom of expression, which is
undermined due to sensationalizing skills, hence, anti-state propaganda and political affiliations of
its amateur media. Nawaz reacted to these elements by restoring the newsprint quota permit
through executive decision during his first tenure and Benazir Bhutto proposed to pass a
defamation law for publishing investigative stories due to the growing complaints regarding
media’s sense of responsibility and ethics by government and public sectors in 1994 (Ziauddin,
2000). Bhutto’s proposal appeared like a threat to media’s freedom that compelled the publishers:
APNS and CPNE to enter into negotiations with the government.
The government and media agreed on drafting a code of ethics for all public and private media
bodies and a “framework for a Press Council” for “adjudicating complaints under the code” for
publishing any content which was immoral or obscene, aroused sectarian, or class hatred, or
undermined the state security, integrity, or ideology, or the loyalty the forces (Naz, 1999, p. 56;
Ziauddin, 2000). Unfortunately, the Press flouted the 1994-agreement like it did with the 1980accord
with Zia’s marital law regime. Nawaz’s second government also failed this dialogue with
the Press despite obliging the journalists with, what Naz calls, plots, unlimited facilities, and
appointments on well-paid government posts (Naz, 1999, p. 59). According to Ziauddin,
Musharraf’s military government continued negotiations on media ethics with the APNS, CPNE,
and PFUJ “in view of the ongoing convergence of broadcasting, telecommunications and
information technology” (2000), hence, tremendous expansion of the electronic media in Pakistan
at the advent of the new millennium. The government introduced free media policy, eliminated
news print quota permit, and issued licenses for private TV channels and cable networks that
began setting up and transmitting legally around 2000-2001, and testing 24/7 news transmission
by August, 2002. Since then, the number of cable TV channels has increased from four to about
ninety in most places. Coincidentally, this media expansion coincided with the post-9/11 US War
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